Assorted thoughts

ep
I guess its up to me now to write my thoughts on schill, the pats, and everything else happening in the world of sports. pky is drifting along in lazyland.

Big Schill
A horrible start against KC. Not time to panic yet. Schill was on EEI today helping to support the Jimmy Fund. He emphatically stated that he was only missing locations and left pitches out over the plate too often. He said he felt like all of his stuff was there. I think that we can give him one more start or maybe 3 starts total, before we really press the panic button. He looked ok against KC velocity wise, so sox fans should just hope that he gets his location going. If not, then who knows what to do with him. I guess he can be an ok 5th starter. But we already have several guys who are 3rd 4th and 5th starters in Arroyo, Wake, Schill, Wells. Schill also said that Roger is the best pitcher in baseball... Jonathan Papelbon, hr to Emil Brown notwithstanding, may be the ace of this staff by the end of the season if the sox don't relegate him to a permanent bullpen status (they should have plenty of arms come september 1 to shore up the pen). My worry with Pap is he tried blowing the high fastball past guys the other night and they were not chasing as they did when he first came up.

First game against Detroit
The Sox, or at least the sox fans, needed to get off to a good start after recent 2 out of 3 series losses to Detroit and KC. Fortunately, the team got a win. Unfortunately, the team's pitching was exposed again. Wake is still ok as a 5th starter, but he's losing his consistency. For a while there he was maybe the stopper of the staff, but now he's reverting back to his career norm. Gonzo is ok, but I need him to be replaced by delcarmen, dinardo, hansen, foulke, et al soon. Same replacement needed for remlinger. Another thought goes to Kevin Millar. I'm assuming the only reason he's playing is that Olerud is not able to play every game per week. If that's the case then i cannot wait until Youkilis and the september callups get up here and put millar's rear end permanently on the bench where it belongs. Millar is neck and neck with Tony Womack and Mike Lowell for the worst starting position players in Major League Baseball this year.

Patriots
UTTER DEMOLITION of the pack tonight. Unstoppable on offense, impenetrable and opportunistic on defense. That sort of domination reminded me of last year's playoff games against the Colts and Steelers. Patriots won decisively in almost every area. And this was with starters playing most of the game for both teams. Defense was the question mark coming into this season, and we saw a good performance tonight. Unfortunately, part of the game planning was to get favre to make mistakes (which he did), so the Pats played differently with a large lead against a mistake prone qb. Thus, we couldn't see how good the secondary was in isolated coverages/play action, nor could we see how well the new linebacking corps played against a balanced offense.

Normally, I'd say a win like this may mask possible problems in the patriot team (or at least cause overconfidence), a la the crushing of pittsburgh and the ny jets to start 2002, but one factor works strongly against this. This offense may be the best patriots offense in team history. Dillon has had a year of getting acclimated to the system, and he should have led the league in rushing last year. The offense line seems not to have missed a step - logan mankins is solid. The wideouts are deep and talented, maybe the NFL's best WR group in terms of depth and guys that can hurt you. On most teams, Tim Dwight is a borderline 3rd wr. On the pats, he might not make it through the next round of cuts. The tight ends on this team is another ridiculously good unit. Ben Watson is amazing to watch. At this point, he's too big for non-LBs to cover and too fast for LBs to cover. He also shows great hands. I think that talent wise he may be equal to Antonio Gates, but since Watson will never get the opportunities Gates does, we'll never see. In any case he could be up there in the top 5 TEs in the league with his effectiveness. Daniel Graham could also be up there in the top TE tier. He may be even better than Watson because of his overall game. He is not only big and fast with good hands, but he is a devestating blocker. Since he blocks so well, he'll be utilized mainly as a blocker in the two tight end set, so we won't get to see him get a touchdown every week like we did early last year (when no TEs were available to catch). I honestly don't see how Fauria makes this team since Jed Weaver is already the main blocking TE and Fauria couldn't block a 6 year old girl. Too bad because Fauria is about as likeable as an NFL player can get. Leading all of this is Tom Brady. It was the perfect contrast tonight between him and Brett Favre. Brett has the cannon arm that he sprays all over the place. Sure, he can make spectacular plays, but he can, and always does against good teams, make horrendous plays that would get him benched if he were not Mr. All-American Superstar Brett Favre. Tom Brady was a surgeon tonight. His precision and timing is uncanny. His highlight was hitting Troy Brown with a disgustingly accurate pass on an out pattern with time winding down in the 1st half. Just mentally comparing him to Vick and these other guys trying to throw precise passes in the West Coast offense, you really appreciate that this guy is not only a winner, a leader, a clutch performer, a mistake free player, or whatever else the national media labels him, but his talent for passing is off the charts. Most telling was the commentary by the tv crew. They noted that wild gunslinger Brett Favre was the kind of qb that you tell kids not to emulate. Instead, kids should try to emulate the cold caculated efficiency of Tom Brady and his "perfect mechanics".